The Great Games-book review by Gilad Atzmon

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 03:29

Though the number of
critical voices concerning Israel, Zionism and Jewish power is growing
steadily, a clear distinction can be made on the one hand between
contributors who operate within the discourse and are politically
oriented, and others who transcend themselves above and beyond any given
political paradigm.

The former category refers to writers and scholars who
operate 'within the box,' accepting the restrictive measures of a
given political and intellectual discourse. A thinker who operates
within such a framework would initially identify the boundaries of the
discourse, and then shape his or her ideas to fit in accordingly. The
latter category refers to a far more challenging intellectual attempt:
it includes those very few who operate within a post-political realm,
those who defy the dictatorship of 'political-correctness', or any given
'party-line'. It relates to those minds that think 'out of the box'.
And it is actually those who, like artists, plant the seeds of a
possible conceptual and consciousness shift.

Sadly enough, the Western anti Zionist, anti Israeli,
and Palestinian solidarity discourse is far from being saturated by
great intellectually and spiritually enlightening texts: For very many
years the discourse has failed to address the most crucial questions
regarding the local and global success of Zionism and Israel. For far
too many years now, very few have dared to question the role of Jewish
lobbying and the obvious continuum between the Jewish State, Jewish
culture, Jewish religion, and ideology. Many years of Left hegemony at
the heart of the Palestinian solidarity discourse is part of the
problem, but this fact can be easily explained and even justified.

Zionism was born in the late 19th century, and like
other emerging political movements at the time, it clearly conveyed some
clear modernist (1) ideological symptoms. It was fuelled by the
spirit of enlightenment. It presented a 'rational', secular, coherent
and structural argument for Jewish self- determination and
re-location.(2) It was driven by Eurocentric modernist
pseudo-scientific, biological-determinist poeticism(3). Political
Zionism found itself negotiating extensively with the leading empires
at the time, most of whom were modernist by definition. It is only
reasonable to assume that Zionism, manifesting itself as a modernist
ideology, would be opposed by other 19th century anti-colonial
modernist ideologies such as Marxism, 'working class politics',
dialectical materialism, cosmopolitanism or Left thinking in general.

Yet, unlike the Left thinking that is in constant
danger of structural and intellectual stagnation, Zionism has proved to
be an inherently dynamic political movement: it has never stopped
evolving and reinventing itself. The history of Zionism reveals a
clear success story. Within just six decades, Zionism fulfilled its
initial promise and founded the 'Jews only' State, at the expense of the
Palestinians. It achieved its initial goal with the vast support of
the world's richest nations and leading superpowers. By 1967 it had
managed to mobilise the entirety of world Jewry, and had transformed
Jewish elites into a fierce fist of Jewish power. By then, Zionism had
also changed its course -- instead of schlepping Jews to Palestine, it
gathered that Israel would actually benefit if Diaspora Jews stayed
exactly where they were, and mounted pressure on their respective
governments. By the end of the 20th century, Israel has managed to
transform the English-speaking empire into an Israeli mission force. In
2003 Britain and the USA sent their sons and daughters to destroy
Iraq, the last fierce enemy of Israel in the region. And yet, at the
time there was hardly any critical theory that could shed light onto
the immense power of Israel and its lobbies within the Anglo-American
political world. There was no political theory that would explain the
Anglo-American's suicidal decision to fight illegal wars for Israel.
There was also a noticeable and substantial lack of scholarly work that
could throw some light on the sudden twist within Western elites
against Islam and Muslims. Being modernist, Eurocentric and
secularist, the Left found it hard, or even impossible to deal with the
complexity of both Islam and Jewish ideology.

Yet, unlike Marxism, or any other form of progressive
thinking, Zionism has never been truly committed to any structural
modernist way of thought. Zionism is primarily loyal to Jews and what it
perceives as their needs. The simple truth is that Zionism was very
quick to drift away from modernism. The deeper truth is that Zionism has
never been a genuinely modernist precept. Zionism is basically a Zelig
populist-pragmatic outlook, which goes through rapid metamorphic
shapes, incarnations and affiliations, just to fit into any given
discourse that suits its purposes. Indeed, Zionism masked itself as a
modernist political ideology when it was needed, and it was secularist
and rational when these ideas were broadly appealing. But it also easily
developed a religious-evangelist flavour -- when the prospects of such
transitions could be translated into power.

Zionism was also very quick to grasp postmodern
conditions; it may even be argued that it has been the first to define
these conditions. Zionism allows itself to be contradictory (4),
irrational at times, tribal and emotional on other occasions. These
facts alone may explain why the Left has failed to offer an adequate
criticism of Zionism and Israel, for if Zionism and Israel belong to the
realm of post modernity, then we could hardly expect any modernist
scholarship to provide a comprehensive reading into the complexity of
the situation.

In recent years we have seen a few successful attempts
to break away from the traditional Left, materialist and modernist
political analysis of Zionism and Israeli politics. James Petras, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
were among the first to publish academic work on the immense and
disastrous impact of the 'Israeli Lobby' (a politically correct wording
for Jewish power). Two years ago Shahid Alam published "Israeli Exceptionalism – The Destabilising Logic of Zionism,"
an incredibly courageous scholarly attempt to grasp the destructive
role of Jewish power in America and beyond. Petras, Mearsheimer, Walt
and Alam operated out of the box: their criticism of Israel, Zionism
and Jewish power was not restricted by a party-line or by any given
political consensus or paradigm. Quite the opposite, their work broke
away from their contemporaneous paradigms and brought into life a new
discourse that now shapes itself into an extensive body of thought, as
well as providing politically pragmatic applications (5). As one may
expect, Petras, Mearsheimer and Walt were criticised by elements within
the Left, and especially by prominent Jewish voices within the Left.
But they prevailed. Wisdom and true intellectual insights cannot be
contained . At the most, these voices can be silenced or suppressed for
a short while but they always hit back with much greater rigour.

The book sketches a fascinating historical journey
that provides Walberg with the necessary means to unveil the unique
particularity of the postmodern conditions we are subject to. Walberg
provides us with an extensive expose of the depth of the Zionist
penetration into Western thought and the destructive power of Israeli
imperial wars.

In order to achieve his goal, Walberg sets an
historical template. He identifies three crucial phases in the past and
recent imperial affairs: Great Game I (GGI) refers to 'classical
imperialism' with competing empires vying for territories and
resources.

Great Game II (GGII) refers largely to the cold war
and the alliance of formerly competing Western empires under US hegemony
in an attempt to restrain communism and contain its influence.

Great Game III (GGIII) is where we are now--the
postmodern phase. It starts roughly with the collapse of the Soviet
block. It can be described broadly in Neo-conservative terms as
American unilateral world domination through absolute military
superiority. But such a definition would be misleading. In reality we
encounter the total Israeli-fication of America and its elites. In
practice what we see is America willingly lending its might to a
miniature Jewish state.

GGIII is the victorious march of Israeli, Zionist, and
Jewish power. Walberg's analysis is there to explain the shameless
reaction of American senators and congressmen to Netanyahu's speech
recently. It explains why America, once regarded as a leader of the free
world, is now lending its destructive might to the miniature Jewish
state. The frightening truth is that Israel is now an 'Empire and -a
-Half' as Walberg calls it. It has, at its disposal, the world's only
super- power that fights its wars by proxy and provides for its needs.
Devastatingly enough, America doesn't find within itself the power to
liberate itself. The world's single super power's elite is practically
held hostage by a miniature state and its supportive lobbies.

Like other significantly illuminating texts, Walberg
provides the reader with the fundamental means to intercept the
Zion-ised reality in which we live. Those who read the book may be able
to grasp the current Murdoch affair and the role of his media empire
within the context of global Zionism. Just less than a year ago, the
media magnate accepted the ADL Award.
In 2003 Murdoch's media network rallied in support of the 'War
Against Terror'. Murdoch should have been stopped by the British
Government or the Parliament, but as it seems, all recent British
Governments and parties have been supported heavily by the Israeli
Lobby in Britain. When this country was taken into an illegal war in
Iraq, Lord cashpoint Levy was Tony Blair's 'number one' fundraiser.

Walberg produces a thorough reading of the various
elements that made Israel into an 'Empire and -a -Half'. Fearlessly he
looks into Judaism: he examines scholarly works dealing with the complex
relationship between 'Jews and the state', he elaborates on Jewish and
Zionist ideologies, he unveils the role of Jewish oligarchs. Walberg
also examines the tactics and strategies that are put into action by
Israel and its supporters: global wars, nuclear armament, soft power,
sayanim, spies and gatekeepers. He elaborates on the Israeli Lobby and
their media manipulation. He also discloses the role of some Jewish
elements within the Left in stifling free discourse and diverting
attention from the real issues.

Towards the end of the book Walberg reveals the bitter
truth -- Israel is actually far more independent than America, its
supportive backing empire : "Despite the continuation of its special
relationship with the US, Israel is playing an increasingly independent
role in GGIII around the world, with its government, corporations and
kosher nostra working with whatever states and non-state actors are
willing to condone its deadly games, selling arms, smuggling drugs,
buying blood diamonds from Africa, conducting covert operations to
subvert governments, assassinating opponents, forging passports... Its
Diaspora community and Chabad network, found in virtually every corner
of the globe, facilitate its game plan, keeping ahead of US plans and
technology through its American Sayanim, operatives, spies and powerful
lobby."(6)

It seems as if Israel is well ahead of America in
every possible field. If Israel has ever been a 'Golem' created by the
'colonial powers' as some Left thinkers insist to suggest, than it is
pretty obvious that the 'Golem' has turned on its creator. "In
keeping with Jewish survival strategy throughout history," Walberg
continues, "Israel's plans are more subtle than those of the current
ruling US empire, as it cannot hope to subdue the world directly, but
rather primarily by shaping or subverting its host empire's aims and
strategies, to achieve its geopolitical "place in the sun" both through
its Diaspora and through its own use of statecraft and subversion,
untroubled by world reaction."(7)

Walberg's "Postmodern Imperialism" is a landmark text,
written at a crucial moment in time. For the West, America and
Americans, this may be a final wake-up call. For Israel, Israelis and
their supporters around the world, this text is a red alert. Israel
urgently needs to find the way to restrain its 'global expansionist
enthusiasm' before it is too late. In fact, it may be too late already.

Connect with Eric Walberg

Canadian Eric Walberg is known worldwide as a journalist specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. A graduate of University of Toronto and Cambridge in economics, he has been writing on East-West relations since the 1980s.

He has lived in both the Soviet Union and Russia, and then Uzbekistan, as a UN adviser, writer, translator and lecturer. Presently a writer for the foremost Cairo newspaper, Al Ahram, he is also a regular contributor to Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Global Research, Al-Jazeerah and Turkish Weekly, and is a commentator on Voice of the Cape radio.

Walberg admits that the internet made his task easier, but without a very thorough grounding in political theory and history, they could not have been written. Walberg who has a degree in economic from Cambridge and has lived in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia, specializes in the Middle East. His Great Games are labelled GGI (pre-Russian revolution), GGII (the Cold War era) and today's on-going GG III, which he sees as a US-British-Israeli campaign for world dominance. Walberg shows globalization's brutality, and with theory to back him up, lays it squarely at imperialism's door.

The scope of this work is vast, but I have chosen one quote that is particularly relevant to current events. Since 2008, the European Union, built up painstakingly after two world wars devastated the continent, has been teetering on collapse, and I have often affirmed that it is a deliberate American policy to destroy that elaborate welfare state. Walberg's confirmation is stunning:

Summary: As IS continues to confound the West with its consolidation of a Salafist-inspired resurrection of a ‘caliphate’, the Danish mole responsible for leading the CIA to Anwar Awlaki has caused a scandal by publishing his memoirs of life “inside al Qaeda and the CIA”.

Recruiting Muslims has not been easy for western ‘intelligence’. The New York Police Department has tried for decades to recruit Muslim immigrants, and was finally embarrassed by a 2013 ACLU lawsuit to disband its most public recruiting unit, which essentially blackmailed anyone with a Muslim name arrested on any pretext, including parking tickets.

The most successful double agent prior to Morten Storm was Omar Nasiri (b. 1960s), the pseudonym of a Moroccan spy who infiltrated al-Qaeda, attending training camps in Afghanistan and passing information to the UK and French intelligence services. He revealed all in his fascinating memoirs Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda A Spy’s Story in 2006.

Muzaffar: Eric Walberg’s new book From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization http://www.claritypress.com/WalbergII.html is a stimulating and informative survey of both Islamic history and reformist thought, culminating in an analysis of the ongoing upheavals in WANA.

The book is an extensive exposition on Islamic Civilization itself. It covers the whole spectrum of dynasties, major episodes and personalities which is why the book should be an important reference for students of the civilization.

You are right, Eric, in arguing that for Islam the goal has always been “to nurture a morally sound community based on the Quran…” (p28). There have been endeavours in that direction in the past—some successes, many failures. In this regard, I am wondering why you did not mention specifically the moral indictment of Muawiyyah by Abu-Dharr Al-Giffari who some would view as the first major critic of the creeping injustices in early Muslim leadership?

In his introduction, Eric Walberg states, “The main purpose of this book is to help the reader to understand the alternative map which Islam offers.” This is both a literal and figural map, an alternative to the imperial and neocolonial boundaries that divide the Islamic world, and an alternative viewpoint to that of the imperial driver of capitalism. This offer includes “realigning ourselves with Nature, and rediscovering humanities’ spiritual evolutionary path…without abandoning the vital role of reason.”

This path along this alternate view is created strongly, with an obvious sympathy for the parts of Islam that are little known to the capitalist imperial view. It is a fully comprehensive path, leading the reader through time and through not just the Middle East, but on into Northern Africa, the Sahel, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

The path always interacts with the imperial capitalist landscape ranging from the original European nationalist empires of France, Britain, Spain, and Holland on through to the hegemonic empire of the United States that has subordinated the previous empires into its fold. This has been done through military backing of corporate enterprises and many financial maneuverings that have – up until now – managed to stretch this empire into a full global span.

The first chapter, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, explains the nature of the Koran without the political prejudice brought on by imperial reaction (blowback) to occupation and creation of the ‘evil’ other. Following that, it presents a broad history of Islam up until the era of the First World War. While the interactions with Christianity were often violent, Islamic expansion eastward generally tended to be accomplished more peacefully through trade and missionaries – the latter of course being against the military corporate interests of the west.

Most western Middle East experts see Islam as a problem for the West -- a source of terrorism, religious fanaticism, unwanted immigrants -- and they see their job as helping to change the Middle East so it's no longer a problem for us. Eric Walberg, however, recognizes that this is another instance of the Big Lie.

The actual problem is the multifaceted aggression the West has been inflicting on the Middle East for decades and is determined to continue, no matter what the cost to them and us will be. His books and articles present the empirical evidence for this with scholarly precision and compassionate concern for the human damage done by our imperialism.

Brain research and social psychology have made astounding advances in understanding the mind. These two books will blow yours. The implications for western 'civilization' are profound. Here are some notes.

Lawrence Wright, Twins: and What They Tell Us About Who We Are, John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

These notes summarize the main findings of twinning studies during the past century which lead to some startling conclusions.

-behaviorism (BFSkinner) argued all behavior genetically based (we are the product of natural selection) but can be programmed in the individual. he denied special genes for altruism/ criminality/ other character trait -what our genes give us is the capacity to adapt to our environment. we are not innately good/ bad, rather determined by our environment. there is no individual responsibility. to change behavior we must design a different environment. -but twin studies suggests genetic basis to behavior (approximately 50%, ie, 1/2 determined, 1/2 'free will' which we develop by creating our own environment as we mature and become more self-aware)

1. The last great secular social justice project — socialism — has failed with the demise of the Soviet Union. 2. Islam and its attendant political-social-economic doctrines are viable alternative routes to social justice. 3. Islam is the only alternative that can deliver social justice. Therefore, Islam is the universal way to social justice.

My -comments to Zoltan's >points:

>the rise of Islamic civilization that Walberg foresaw was dashed on the rocks of divisiveness and foreign intervention

-I see this 'Islamic awakening' as coming in waves. the 2013 coup in Egypt is a trough, but the process of evolution/ revolution continues. the openness and experience of the Islamists cannot be put back in the djin's bottle.I recall young Egyptian friends who were 'politicized' after the 2011 uprising. they didn't join secular groups, but the Muslim Brotherhood -- a huge move by millions of Egyptian youth. this has never been mentioned anywhere in the press. the ongoing demonstrations are courageous and principled, and deserve our respect and support.

summary: Islam has a complete social doctrine which opposes the exploitation of man by man and lending at interest. For this reason, Islam is, in the contemporary world after the end of communism, the great alternative to capitalism. Massimo Campanini, one of the leading Italian scholars of the field, in his History of the Middle East, confirms that Islam stands as challenge to the idea of "end of history". But this challenge is not extremist Islam and terrorism, which in his opinion is already defeated, but two other "Islamists".

Resisting The Modernist Nightmare: Islam As Road To Peace? by Richard Wilcox

Following the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, there was supposed to have been a “peace dividend” which would have allowed the world to stop wasting money on arms manufacturing and explore roads toward peace and commerce. However, the Cold War itself may have been a ruse to some extent in order to justify the growth of global totalitarian government and corporate power in both the West and East, and as a result a peaceful world was never achieved.

Even the most naïve observer could see that something was very odd, given that at the same moment that the Russian enemy was tamed and the Berlin Wall had fallen, a new, even more nefarious enemy was born: the Muslim Terrorist. This seamless transition that benefited the military industrial complex and zionist warmongers was practically lifted out of a Hollywood script. In fact, Hollywood played an important role in creating the caricature and stereotype of the “evil Muslim” through innumerable anti-Muslim Hollywood propaganda films.

This book is a continuation of my earlier work, Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games (2011), though it stands on its own. My purpose in Postmodern Imperialism was to give a picture of the world from the viewpoint of those on the receiving end of imperialism. It traces the manipulation of Islamists by imperialism, and poses the question: What are the implications of the revival of Islamic thought and activism for the western imperial project?

The subject of this work is the expansion of Islam since the seventh century, when revelations delivered to the Prophet Muhammad led to its consolidation as the renewal and culmination of Abrahamic monotheism. It looks at the parallels between the Muslim world today and past crises in Islamic civilization, which gave impetus to reforms and renewal from within, relying on the Quran and hadiths,1 and attempts to interpret recent history from the viewpoint of the Muslim world—how it sees the imposition on it of western systems and beliefs, and how it is dealing with this.

The period up to and including the occupation of the Muslim world by the western imperialists corresponds to Postmodern Imperialism’s Great Game I (GGI). For Asians, the most important event heralding the possibility of a new post-GGI ‘game’ was the Japanese victory in 1905 over Russia. Japan had successfully reformed via the Meiji Restoration in 1868, inspiring all Asia, including China and the Muslim world, which saw Japan’s determination to develop independently of the imperial powers as a way out of the colonial trap that they were rapidly falling into.

European Journal of American Studies review of Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games

(March 2012)

Recent history for even the casual observer of international affairs has been plagued by wars and conflicts in specific regions of the world. The wars in Central Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, seem to indicate the latest machinations in the imperial designs of the USA. For many, using the term imperialism and connecting it to the USA is at best inappropriate. For others, American interventions in particular countries or specific regions of the world represent the practices of a hegemonic power and the expansion of an American empire. Some even argue that the nature of American imperialism is utterly novel, and deserving of a new label: ‘postmodern imperialism.’ As the title of Eric Walberg’s book, his examination of the trajectories of contemporary imperialism includes scrutiny of the geopolitical interests of the USA and its “new developments in financial and military-political strategies to ensure control over the world’s resources” (27-28). While Postmodern Imperialism primarily focuses on key aspects of imperialism, geopolitical analysis and commentary forms the foundation of Walberg’s narrative.

-organic evolution tends to create more complex forms of life, raising overall entropy but concentrating order locally-Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere, the thinking envelope of the Earth-throughout nature, main trend is the increase in capacity for information processing, storage and analysis. DNA not just data, but data processor.-the function of the energy marshaled by an organism or society not just to sustain and protect structure, but to guide the marshaling.-secret of life not DNA but zero sum (zs)/ nonzero sum (nzs) games (to better pass on one’s DNA - the ‘meaning of life’). ‘laws of nature’:

Review of Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Sharia Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World,

Sadakat Kadri

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012

There are 50 Muslim-majority states in the world; 11 of them, including Egypt, have constitutions that acknowledge Islam as a source of national law. In Heaven on Earth, Sadakat Kadri, an English barrister and New York attorney, provides a much-needed and highly readable overview of Islamic legal history and an entertaining survey of the state of Islamic law today, full of fascinating anecdotes.

For instance, have you heard the one about the eleventh-century Sufi mystic whose prayers were interrupted by a familiar voice: "Oh, Abu Al-Hasan!" it boomed. "Do you want me to tell people what I know about your sins, so that they stone you to death?" "Oh, Lord," Al-Hasan whispered back. "Do you want me to tell people what I know about your mercy, so that none will ever feel obliged to bow down to you again?" "Keep your secret," came God's conspiratorial reply. "And I will keep mine."

Such risqué offerings aside, Kadri looks at the development of Islamic law from the time of the Prophet, focussing on attitudes to war, criminal justice, religious tolerance, and movements of reform through history. He provides valuable background for all those concerned and/or excited about today's resurgence of Islam. As the fastest growing religion, second only to Christianity in numbers (and surely first in terms of sincere practitioners), Islam is an increasingly powerful force not only in the world of religion, but in the realms of culture, politics and even economics.

Ard ard (Surface-to-surface): The story of a graffiti revolutionSherif Abdel-Megid Egyptian Association for Books 2011ISBN 978-977-207-102-9

Graffiti -- the art of the masses, by the masses, for the masses -- has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and arguably to Pharaonic Egypt. Sherif Abdel-Megid, a writer who works for Egyptian television, boasts that Egypt's revolution and the explosion of popular art that followed it finds its roots in the decay of the Sixth dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom, following the reign of Pepi II (2278-2184 BC), credited with having the longest reign of any monarch in history at 94 years (Mubarak, eat your heart out). His own decline paralleled the disintegration of the kingdom and it is thanks to Pharaonic graffiti that we know about it.

I confess that I cringe when I see the word “post-modern.” This word has
obscured more discussions, confused more gullible readers, and conned
more writers than any word since “existential” and its “-ism.” For the
most part, it has served as a kind of fashionable linguistic operator
that signals something radical and profound will follow. Almost always,
what follows disappoints.

Eric Walberg’s book, Postmodern Imperialism(Clarity
Press, 2011), doesn’t change my general opinion of the word, though
what follows the title certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Walberg has
offered a welcome taxonomy of imperialism from its nineteenth century
genesis until today; he has given a plausible explanation of
imperialism’s contours since the exit of the Soviet Union and Eastern
European socialism from the world stage; and he has convincingly
described Israel’s unique role in the continuing reshaping of
imperialism’s grasp for world domination.

The great disaffected masses tell us that history is on the march and, as usual, guns and butter are the simpler issues. In America, support dwindles for a war that has lasted a decade. Drone missiles, each costing $100,000, kill “terrorists” in gutturally named, chicken-scratch places bewilderingly far from America’s hometowns, whose simple citizens ask where their taxes go. Costs of the Afghanistan war this year are the highest ever, $119.4 billion and counting.[1] Polls show historically deep disaffection with The System. The mask of America-First patriotism is falling, revealing an intoxicated self-grandiosity and will to power by renascent Bush-era neocons and cynical manipulations by the CEO caste and other one-percenters for more and more wealth, and whose sense of entitlement the victims of class warfare, lumpen proles and petit bourgeoisie alike, seem unable to stomach any longer.[2] Approval of the Republican led-by-gridlock Congress hovers around fifteen percent.[3] Ever-larger protests in other cities in America and internationally have extended those on Wall Street – protests even a year ago one would never have predicted – and “class warfare – rich against poor” appears on the protestors’ signs.

The disaffected might also ask why the US, as Eric Walberg notes in his extraordinary new book, has 730 American military bases in fifty countries around the globe, and why the US share of the world’s military expenditures is 42.8% while, by comparison, China’s is 7.3% and Russia’s 3.6%. The unavoidable irony is that the Pax Americana seems to be requiring endless war with no particular rationale behind it – and truly astonishing numbers of dollars are spent on behalf of war rather than at home. What may be fatally undermining credibility in America’s “transcendent values” has been the sense that as the facts filter down to the masses, the Empire’s new clothes appear to be the same as that of past empires. All empires have births and deaths – the US Empire will be no different. Internal contradictions of the US efforts to control the globe seem now to be sending things spiraling out of control.[4]

Eric Walberg’s acute insights into the contemporary global order raise many questions about the continued viability of the American and Israeli focus on wealth and power. Perhaps understandably, his interests and insights inspired by the Islamic world make him a penetrating commentator on peoples who are a product of Christian and Jewish tradition.

Walberg is a Canadian authority on the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia who writes for Al Ahram, the best known English language newspaper in the Middle East.

Though the number of
critical voices concerning Israel, Zionism and Jewish power is growing
steadily, a clear distinction can be made on the one hand between
contributors who operate within the discourse and are politically
oriented, and others who transcend themselves above and beyond any given
political paradigm.

The former category refers to writers and scholars who
operate 'within the box,' accepting the restrictive measures of a
given political and intellectual discourse. A thinker who operates
within such a framework would initially identify the boundaries of the
discourse, and then shape his or her ideas to fit in accordingly. The
latter category refers to a far more challenging intellectual attempt:
it includes those very few who operate within a post-political realm,
those who defy the dictatorship of 'political-correctness', or any given
'party-line'. It relates to those minds that think 'out of the box'.
And it is actually those who, like artists, plant the seeds of a
possible conceptual and consciousness shift.

The Wandering Who? A study of Jewish identity politics, gives a unique insider’s view of the Israeli mind. Its author explains to Eric Walberg that you can take the girl out of Jezebel, but you can’t take Jezebel out of the girl

Gilad Atzmon is a world citizen who calls London his home. He was born a sabra, and served as a paramedic in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War, when he realised that “I was part of a colonial state, the result of plundering and ethnic cleansing.” He has wandered far since then, become a novelist, philosopher, one of the world’s best jazz saxophonists, and at the same time, one of the staunchest supporters of the Palestinian cause, supporting their right of return and the one-state solution. He now defines himself as a “proud self-hating Jew” and “a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian”. In 2009 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan quoted Atzmon during a debate with Israeli president Shimon Peres, telling him at the World Economic Forum that “Israeli barbarity is far beyond even ordinary cruelty.”

Three books recently published by the American radical publisher Clarity Press reflect different aspects of racism in the US, which even under a black president is unfortunately alive and well, promoted in US policy at home and abroad -- if not officially:

-secular thinkers imagine they have
left religion behind, but have only exchanged religion for a humanist faith in
progress

-Joseph Roth worried about spread of
ideas of national self-determination. Monarchy was more tolerant. A society can
be civilized without recognizing rights, while one based on rights may be
tainted with barbarism (Austria-Hungary
abolished torture in 1776)

-torture is Enlightenment tradition,
'progress' a legacy of Christianity (salvation in battle between good and evil
Zoroastra). 'God defeats evil' translated into secular terms. also meliorism of
liberal humanists. Enlightenment hostile to Christianity but used Christian
framework.

-US enriched rather than impoverished
by the two world wars and by their outcome, nothing in common with Britain -> still glorifies military, sentiment
familiar in Europe before 1945.

-in Europe,
dominant sentiment relief at "final closing of a long, unhappy chapter"
vs in US - story recorded in a triumphalist key. war works. thus remains
the first option, vs last resort

-20th c rise and fall of the state. welfare
state a cross-party 20th c consensus implemented by liberals or conservatives
not as first stage of 20th c socialism but culmination of late-19th c reformist
liberalism, prerequisites of a stable civil order. p10

-citizens lost gnawing sentiment of
insecurity and fear that had dominated political life between 1914 and 1945. forgot
this fear -> neoliberalism. now fear reemerging [-> neofascism], fear
that not only we but those 'in authority' have lost control of forces beyond
their reach [implicitly acknowledging the cabal of international bankers/ military
industrial complex (mic) that conspire above governments, tho Judt would be the
first to dismiss this p20]

To young people today,
the world as a global village appears as a given, a ready-made order, as if
human evolution all along was logically moving towards our high-tech,
market-driven society, dominated by the wealthy United States. To bring the
world to order, the US must bear the burden of oversize defense spending,
capture terrorists, eliminate dictators, and warn ungrateful nations like China
and Russia to adjust their policies so as not to hinder the US in its
altruistic mission civilatrice.

The reality is something
else entirely, the only truth in the above characterization being the
overwhelming military dominance of the US in the world today. The US itself is
the source of much of the world’s terrorism, its 1.6 million troops in over a
thousand bases around the world the most egregious terrorists, leaving the
Osama bin Ladens in the shade, and other lesser critics of US policies worried
about their job prospects.

My own realization of
the true nature of the world order began with my journey to England to study
economics at Cambridge University in September 1973. I decided to take the
luxury SS France ocean liner which offered a student rate of a few hundred
dollars (and unlimited luggage), where I met American students on Marshall and
Rhodes scholarships (I had the less prestigious Mackenzie King scholarship),
and used my wiles to enjoy the perks of first class. The ship was a microcosm
of society, a benign one. The world was my oyster and I wanted to share my joy
with everyone.

Muslim Americans are slowly beginning to make their mark on their very conflicted society. There are more Muslims than Jews in the US now -- approximately 5 million. They are the most diverse of all American believers, 35 per cent born in the US (25 per cent Afro-American), the rest -- immigrants from southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Traditionally they have voted Republican, but have shifted to Democrat and Green parties in recent years.

Three new publications from the leading radical British press are the tip of a growing iceberg of passionate pleas for sanity in international affairs. Most of us prefer to stick our heads in the sand as the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, but there are works that can fascinate and uplift, perhaps even inspire us to do something before it is too late.

-the attempt to fuse the public and private lies behind Plato’s attempt to answer the q “Why is it in one’s interest to be just?” and Christianity’s claim that perfect self-realization can be attained through service to others. [capitalism proposes the invisible hand, soc – class consciousness and state-sanctioned ideology, Rorty’s vision – soc demo and metaphors]

-Latin words for culture = agriculture/ domestication AND translation from Greek terms for spatial image of time. We are 'time-binders', creating a symbolic class of life, an artificial world -> control over nature. Time becomes real because it has consequences. Flow of time 'the distinction between what one needs and what one has, the incipience of regret' (Guyau (1890) Carpe diem, but civ(ilization) forces us to mortgage the present to the future.

-worldatlarge dangerous and threatening. It didn't like the Jews (Js) because they were clever, quick-witted, successful, but also because they were noisy and push. It didn't like what we were doing here in the Land of Israel either, because it begrudged us even this meager strip of marshland, boulders, and desert. Out there in the world all the walls were covered with graffiti: yids, go back to Palestine, so we came back to Palestine and now the worldatlarge shouts at us: Yids, get out of Palestine.

25/12/8 This latest collection of essays by the controversial Israeli writer will not disappoint both admirers and antagonists of this iconoclastic anti-Zionist, most definitely the greatest thorn in Israel's very own backyard. Shamir has known controversy most of his life, notably when he was forced to leave the Soviet Union for demonstrating defiantly against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. He came to Israel, served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army, before settling down to a career as journalist (Haaretz, BBC), translator (James Joyce, the Caballah), and increasingly a one-man Internet David to Israel's Goliath. He has never looked back, despite the difficulty of publishing his unapologetic critiques of not just Zionism and Israel, but of Judaism, Jews and Jewry.

In Canada, dinner time chat – left or right – about world events generally follows the standard media script: the backward Muslims must be taught a lesson, that the events of 9/11/2001 and the tragedies unfolding in Iraq and Afghanistan are at worst a cock-up on the part of the US government and friends. Something like the following is served up on both sides of the political spectrum: "They had to invade Afghanistan to stop the Taliban supporting Al-Qaeda. Invading Iraq was a mistake but what do you expect from a moron like Bush? If only he'd listened to his father and just kept chipping away at Saddam." In Egypt, the idea that the bombing of the twin towers on 9/11 was the work of a handful of Muslim fanatics directed by Osama bin Laden is dismissed by all but a few westernized folk. "Bush bombed them to launch his war against Islam and to steal Iraq's oil," is the usual response. Or, "9/11 was done by a group within the US government in league with Mossad, using Muslims (or at least their passports) as a front." Where is the truth? We all agree 9/11 was a conspiracy, but by whom? Is it possible that the official conspiracy theory is a hoax covering a much more frightening cabal?

We will take a journey along the most ancient and thrilling road in Man's history, through a mysterious and little known part of the world, but one which has experienced all there is - the great religions have all thrived here at one time or another - Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam; at certain periods great centres of learning and the arts sprang up and declined, as did great warrior-princes. It is a region of violent contrasts - desert, mountains, lush valleys and oases. It is a mix of many races. Until a century ago, it was all but lost to the march of civilisation. Until the fall of Communism, it maintained its shroud of secrecy. With modern means of communications, it is now as accessible as any other destination. I am speaking of course of where East truly meets West - Central Asia.

We left Saturday morning for a 4-day hike. Because of the growing problem of bandits in the mountains, Sasha decided to start from the mountains nearest to Tashkent which start from a Tajik village (all villages near or in the mountains are populated by either Tajik or Kazakh) called Nevichu, avoiding check points by taking back roads. Sasha’s wife, Oksana, (whom I met on the plane from New York to Tashkent when she conned me into taking one of her 50-lb. bags to avoid extra baggage charges) saw Sasha, their son, Dima, and myself off, agreeing to meet us 5 days later in Gazalkent.

-sunrise, sunset - vacant metaphors, eroded figures of speech, ghosts in the attic? God embedded in the childhood of rational speech (Nietzsche)-speech communicating meaning and feeling => God's presence, esp. aesthetic meaning-when we encounter text/ art/ music (tam), i.e., the other in its condition of freedom, we find transcendence-enigma of creation is made sensible in text, art music (tam)-interpreter - decipherer and communicator of meanings, translator between languages/ cultures/ conventions, and executant, giving intelligible life to tam-private reader/ listener can become executant of felt meaning when learns by heart, affording the music indwelling clarity and life-force, ingests (not consumes)

Roots of one's pleasures and emotions:Chinese eye - sees nature as having its own life, untamedPersian heart - romantic loveAfrican ear - musicMongol nomadic sense of freedom-must search further than ancestors for roots of freedom and to understand emotions and ambitions

Man is faced with basic loneliness-immunity from loneliness using loneliness as vaccine via:1/ hermit - professional alien to seek internal peace2/ turn inwards3/ awareness of the absurd - be an eccentric4/ sense that individual contains echoes of the incomprehensible coherence/ order of the world, has divine spark, recognise a link of generosity between themselves and others, rational and emotional connections which mean that they are part of a wider whole, which leads to altruism-diminish FEAR of being alone: only then can one relate to others on terms of mutual respect

Artemidorus The interpretation of dreams-break down dream into constituent partts, decipher in context of the whole-virtuous vs. ordinary individual - gods speak to former-the more you understand dreams, the more complex they become (to hide behind images)-wasting sperm is bad (with prostitute, fellatio - signifying loss of money), being passive is bad for man (tho sex with slaves or passive with older man is ok, the latter a promise of gifts)-sex out of harmony with nature is bad - rift, enmity, death

-Jenifer Hart's pragmatic approach to Jacob's churchgoing is utilitarian - actions not intrinsically good or evil, but should be judge by their consequences. Right acts produce best results. 1960s loss of religious faith but while people were casting off the trammels of institutional Christianity, they were also turning to alternative forms of faith. 'Go with the flow' antithesis of ideals of convent but both seeking what gave life intrinsic value, rejecting money and worldly success. Transcendental meditation to change thought structures; spirituality and rituals bring measure of peace, help transform, release from bind of ego.

The general theme: respect your child’s feelings, let the child develop and mature to become independent, love unconditionally. Parents, especially mothers, unconsciously or otherwise, use the child to fulfill their needs, and use conditional love as their weapon (rationalized as ‘socialization’) A child who resists is rejected or withdrawn from and can’t help but re-enact the relationship. There is no clear separation of subject/object (child’s fear that rejection of object will destroy it).